As exciting as a slushy puddle.
* Good graphics
* The events you'd expect
Minus:
* Commentators repetitive and dull
* No button mashing
* Most control methods are terrible
* Occasionally there is music
* Non-skiing events over too quickly
* REALLY boring
I did have a lot more faults listed in the 'Minus' section, but the last one tells you all you need to know. "Torino 2006" is not a good game.
I chose it because I fancied the idea of a winter-sport version of "Athens 2004", secretly hoping that there would be more button-mashing fun to be had.
Disappointment occurred; there is only one instance of button-bashing and even then it's not the main control method.
While the game does have a good spread of disciplines, they're not as varied as one would hope. There's downhill, slalom and cross-country skiing, Biathlon, Luge and Bobsleigh, Speed Skating and Ski-Jumping.
The 15 events it boasts on the cover are male/female variations of the above and/or different distances. But even this would be okay if the methods for controlling each event were in any way absorbing. But they're not.
Almost all the events bear little variation on steering left and right and another button to slow down or lean. The only exceptions to this are Cross-Country which involves holding x intermittently to use stamina, and Ski Jumping which replaces steering with balancing using the same methods.
Also Speed-Skating involves timing alternate X and O presses to match strides which doesn't work properly.
I got 6 events through the 15 event Competition and was starting to wonder what game i shall play next. After 10 events I was wondering if i should bother finishing. After 12 events i started getting myself disqualified deliberately just so that i could reach the end as soon as possible.
Even the bad control schemes are not the worst thing about "Torino 2006", the overwhelming factor is that it's just not fun to play, it's really rather boring.
All of the non-skiing events are over too quickly, the cross-country and Biathlon events aren't over soon enough and despite an impressive sense of speed in the pipe events, there's no reason to get excited over anything.
Yes it looks great and that's the one positive i can level at "Torino 2006", but what's the point in a game that isn't any fun to play?
Just don't do it.